Breath 3: Episode 5
Breath 3: Episode 5 '---' (Skyblack's perspective) It was night again. It was just another boring walk to what seemed to infinity. While Dinky slept inside the tent, I stood outside, along with Derpy, gazing at the hot flames from the campfire. I couldn't sleep that night for whatever reason and she couldn't too. "Can you remember any other good songs?" Derpy asks on the other side of the campfire... "Let me see..." I searched my mind for any other songs to remember. I find funny that when you need to remember something for a reason, your mind decides to just hide everything from you. "I'm out...I have no idea, really..." "Yeah, me too...you sang 'Far Away' pretty well, though!" "I was singing just like how you were. I listened to your voice, the way it rose, the way it descended, how it echoed, and I just repeated...You are the one who sings well...Not me..." "Oh...Thank you..." I nodded... Some time passed... "I think we should try to go to sle-" I was interrupted by a loud noise, like a minor explosion coming from behind us. We jumped and turned ourselves to it's direction, but, trees blocked our vision to see what it was... "What was that?" Derpy asks. My sixth sense started tingling, "Get in the tent...We have problems..." "I want to help!" "Help?" "Y-Yeah, just say your plan!" "My plan is for you to get in the tent while I get rid of whatever is here..." "Sky, I can handle myself!" I looked at her... "...Alright, but I take no responsibility for your death or the death of your daughter..." "Guys, what is going on?" Dinky suddenly walks out of the tent... "Oh, it's nothin-" "We have company kid, get back in there before something eats you..." She let out a "eep!" before running back in... "My goodness, Sky!" Derpy said annoyed. "Hey, atleast she has a lower risk of dying in there than here outside..." Silence took care of the place when we heard a bush moving... "There's definitely something here..." Derpy says, looking around shivering... I pulled out my machete...I almost forgot we had them... Derpy did the same... Whatever was there simply wouldn't show itself...Until we heard a bush opening. We turned around to it's side, pointing our blades to it... There stood a purple unicorn, with a frightened expression in her face... "W-Well, uh, hi!" She says nervously... "Twilight? What are you doing here?!" I yell, "Didn't Dash give you the message that I'll kill any one of you that crosses my path?!" "Sky, I'm sorry, but we need you!" "You're a liar. The only thing you need me for is to kill me!" "Sky, we would never do that! We forgive you for your murders, we're sorry for hiding a lot from you. We never wanted to harm you in any sort of way!" "Oh sure you didn't, because making me feel like shit and putting me in a damn sanatorium with a rapist inside my cell is totally not going to make me feel harmed. I should just live up to my promise right now and kill you..." I took a step forwards... "I wouldn't advise you to do that! Step away!" Her horn started to glow... I didn't care, I took another step... "Sky, step away! This is your last warning!" "You better think fast because YOU'RE ABOUT TO DIE THIS NIGHT!" I yelled and started making a run for her. Her horn glowed brighter, and a huge line of magic came from it, hitting my forehead in a nick of time... I stopped running, as my head started to hurt. I could see purple glow coming from the corner of my eyes, my limbs starting to not respond, and my objective...My objective was changing to come with her... Thankfully, I was bringing a true friend with me...Derpy threw her machete at Twilight, making the handle hit her muzzle, and stopping her magic as she held her muzzle in pain... It was relief to have my mind back in place, and regaining control of my body... "A-Are you alright?" Derpy asks next to me... "I'll be even better when I get rid of this bitch..." I reply, walking to the Twilight in pain in front of us... But, four more mares come out from the bushes. All are familiar. Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash respectively. "Oh goodie, looks like we'll have a bloodbath..." I spun the machete around my hoof... I noticed how all mares had angry expressions in their faces except Applejack. She, then, speaked up... "Sky...Ah never wanted to do this..." She distracted me. A heavy and strong punch hit the right side of my face, disorienting me and knocking me down... My ear ringed as my fast reflexes were fast enough to make me turn around and roll sideways to the right before a certain hated blue pegasus stepped on my head. I swung the machete to the leg that hit the ground, making a small cut on it, making the pegasus knee in pain. I got up, and was about to stab her, but, I was obviously interrupted by Pinkie Pie tackling me. I fell hard on the ground, with punches hitting my face, but, my reflexes saved me again, as I was able to punch her throat in the middle of the beatdown. I kicked her away, making she drop on top of Rainbow Dash... I went for my machete, but, a purple glow emitted from it, floating it away from me. It's lower part turned itself to me, and then, it flew to my face, hitting my forehead with a high velocity. And then, it's blade turned to me and the machete flew to my throat, stopping very close to it... "YOU'RE COMING WITH US NOW, YOU HEAR ME?!" Rarity yells from up ahead, as the machete stood dangerously near to my throat... I raised my hooves...Applejack gulped and started walking to me... But, I noticed something behind Rarity...It was the gray pegasus that I brought along with myself. She hit the back of her machete behind Rarity's neck with a great force, enough to knock her out and disable her magic, making the machete fall right on my hooves. I pointed it to Applejack, who was already very close to me... She gulped, and sweat was visible... "S-S-Sky...D-Don't d-do a-anything stupid!" "This isn't stupid for me..." "Applejack!" Twilight yelled from where she still remained, "Keep calm! I'll save-" "Twilight, no." A voice came from the bushes, and from behind them, came Celestia... I moved behind Applejack and held her, wrapping my right front leg on her neck and holding the machete with the other one. "You shouldn't have come here, Celestia..." Derpy dragged the unconscious Rarity and threw her on top of Pinkie, who still lied on top of Rainbow Dash. She, then, stepped on them... "So, I see...You really don't care about us anymore, do you?" "Guess not..." "Mmmm hmm...Okay..." "I told you to keep your elements away from me!" "Sky..." She took a step forwards, "I...I already told you...I really regret what I've done...I am sorry that I made a lie a law, I'm sorry that I killed Fluttershy, I'm sorry that I sent you to that sanatorium, I'm sorry for everything! I am! I AM!" She kneeled, I saw tears coming out of her eyes, "Forgive me! Please! I beg of you! I'm telling you, I never wanted to harm you! I was out of control, and I regret it so much! I don't want to lose any more elements, I don't want to lose Ponyville!" "What about me? Do you want to lose me?" "I DON'T!" "...You sent your ponies all the way over here to try to kill me...And you say you don't want to lose me? Is that it? No really, YOU SENT YOUR SLAVES ALL THE WAY TO MY CAMP TO TRY TO KILL ME...and you say you don't want to lose me? You think I'm so easy to fool? I'm not. Over a year ago, you pushed me to the point where I lost all faith in you. You depressed me, and you depressed me again just a few days ago...I was having a good life in Christingham before you came along and told me this Red Heat problem of yours. If you wanted me to work for you so you could backstab me later, you, and your slaves should've been smarter. You weren't. And now, you come all the way over here," I dragged the machete's blade all the way to Applejack's leg, "to try to kill me? Because, oh, that is so going to convince me!" The blade made it's way up to her side, "You should've been smarter, friend...Otherwise, you wouldn't have to see...this." I twirled the machete, holding it down, and moved the blade to Applejack's eye...And I stabbed it gently... The mare screamed, shook, struggled, squirmed, as I spinned the machete's blade around in her eye, shocking every single pony present, excluding Rarity, who was still unconscious... Celestia closed her eyes afterwards, looking down and bringing her hooves to her face. Twilight was shocked to the point where she just stared at us with two hooves on her mouth. Derpy just put a single hoof in her mouth. Even though, she was still with me, she was shocked by my coldness and general psychopathy. One that I didn't even noticed that existed until that day... Rainbow Dash yelled "NOOOOOOO!" as she watched. Pinkie couldn't see anything but hear the panic and pain. Applejack agonized as she now permanently lost her right side's vision... I raised Applejack's head and put the blade now in between her chin and throat... "Celestia, this is nothing compared to other things I can do...Would you like to step away, or see..." I looked to the mares under Derpy, "Four more elements fall at once, leaving you only with your student?" "I...I..." She stuttered as she held her hooves in her face, "I give up...I can't take it...Leave her alone...You won..." I nodded, and let go of Applejack, pushing her torwards Celestia... She slowly walked to the alicorn, sobbing as well in pain... "Derpy, let these go too..." I pointed to Pinkie, Dashie and Rarity... As soon as Derpy stepped off them, Dashie struggled to get out of the pile of mares. She got out and started running to me. As I expected. "Dashie, no!" Twilight yelled, but it didn't stop her. I dodged her incoming punch and slashed her armpit with my blade... She fell in even more pain... I grabbed her by the neck and threw her at Derpy, who threw her to Celestia... Twilight kept trying to calm Applejack over the lost eye. Rarity was still unconscious and Celestia herself was going to carry her home. Pinkie was confused and scared about Applejack's eye. Rainbow Dash winced in pain due to her slashed armpit and tried to calm Applejack down about her eye. And finally, Applejack kept crying about her now lost eye... "Come on..." Celestia says to the scarred Mane Five, "We failed, girls...We failed Ponyville..." They dissapeared behind the bushes, before I saw a purple light emit from the trees and loud explosion like noise. They teleported back to wherever they came from... Derpy sheated her machete, gulped and walked past me. I just kept staring at where the mares came from and left... I stood there for a few minutes before turning around and walking to the tent. Inside, Derpy could be heard trying to calm her daughter, who actually had saw everything... As if traumatizing Ponyville wasn't enough, now I traumatize Celestia, the Mane Five, Derpy and her daughter... I decided to sleep outside of the tent that night...in the cold... --- In the following morning, I woke up by myself. Apparently, Derpy and Dinky decided it was best to not wake me up. What they had saw on the last night scarred them for good. They didn't want to talk to me or just interact me with at all...I became a monster to them... The walk to Christingham was silent...But, this silence was broken, when I saw the first mark of civilization... The small wooden house to call Transport Wagons... "We're close..." I said. Derpy and her daughter looked at me with their eyes wide. I saw a smile pop up in their faces... We started trotting. My mind was lost in the peace that now I would finally get after such a week... My wish to enjoy my last two years of life in peace was back... I had a lot to do after I stepped back in the town, like meeting Redflower and Gray again, to talk to the friendly ponies... I would be back at home if it wasn't for one thing... "What...the hell?!" As soon as we caught the first glimpse of Christingham, I felt my dreams get butchered... My town was destroyed. I could see black smoke coming out of buildings, corpses with dry blood on the path with flies flying above them, destruction and many others... Everything in my piece of work that took me years to create and build... "No...No, no, no, no, no, no, this can't be!" I started running to my casino as soon as Redflower and Gray popped into my mind, leaving Derpy and Dinky behind... I kicked the door open. It was more destruction. Chairs fallen, tables broken, bottles of alcohol broken and with it's fluids around it, the barpony slumped over the counter, dead for what seemed days... I ran to my office...I opened doors to reveal the sight that I most feared to see... A dead Redflower on top of my table, with various injuries onto her body, such as bullet holes, cuts, bruises, marks of whip slashes and strangling onto her neck... Right over her, I could see Gray...hanged, with his body rotting, his eyes removed from it's sockets, and the word "HI!" carved into his chest... I kneeled on the ground...I was shocked... I never even had time to say goodbye... "Hey, Skyblack..." I heard a masculine voice behind me...I turned around, to see three stallions pointing their rifles at me, "Welcome back..." "You bastards..." I raised my hooves... "Jack sends his regards..." The middle one said... After that, they opened fire onto me. I felt each one of their bullets piercing through my coat, destroying everything that was inside me and outside me. The force of the impact throwing me backwards as blood flew out of me and I grunted due to the pain that I never ever felt before and never wished to feel... I kneeled on the ground after the rain of lead stopped...Rivers of blood streaming down across my body...I coughed blood out... "Sayonara, Graymane..." Those were the last words I heard before I felt my mind be shut down by the bullets with my name on it. I felt the right side of my head be destroyed by them... I saw the world go white as I feel myself go numb... --- ... I got up. I could see my killers in front of me. They were frozen in time. I looked behind myself to see Redflower and Gray dead. Suddenly, I heard a scream. A feminine scream coming from outside. I ran past the frozen Red Heat and was about to go through the door, but it just slammed itself shut, and wooden planks suddenly appeared on it, shaking the whole room and breaking all kinds of glass material in my office as each plank showed up on the door... I looked behind myself. The Red Heat was gone, along with the dead bodies of Redflower and Gray. I heard a voice yell for my name... "SKY!" I ran to the broken window. Outside, I could see the destroyed Christingham. For some reason, I jumped and fell on the ground with no injuries, rolled and suddenly, the weather had changed. I could see dark clouds, and from them, fell snow. The ground below me was covered in snow, the trees, the destroyed buildings, everything... I could hear the yell again... "NO, NO, DON'T!" Along with it, I could hear a colt cry, but not a normal cry of sadness...It was a cry of pain... I followed the path that led me to what seemed the screams...The path seemed to be endless... Suddenly, all the buildings around me just shrink to the ground and dissapear, as I keep running. The trees dissapear, and soon, all I'm left with is an endless path of snow... I kept hearing sobs from both the mare and the colt... The sky was slowly turning red...The black clouds seemed to start to form figures...Like skulls, organs, and various other disturbing sights I can't even describe... I started to see eyes on the sky. Each opening as soon as the other opened. Eyes with piercing irises that stared directly to me... I couldn't stop running as the sobs wouldn't stop...I only stopped running, when a door showed up on the path... A door, it didn't even had walls around it... I opened it. I saw a mirror right away... Or atleast I thought it was a mirror...I could see myself in it, but, with heavy differences... My face was heavily damaged. My right cheek had been torn off, revealing the remaining clenched teeth I had. My nose bled intensely, the right side of my head was open as well, I could see things such as my mutilated brain with small pieces of it dangling while it also bled... After noticing my alternated disturbing appearance, the Skyblack inside the mirror suddenly froze, it stopped following my movements, before it jumped out of the mirror, grabbed my shoulders and pulled me in, with the door closing behind me... I saw myself fall down into a pit of darkness. No indications when the fall was going to stop whatsoever... I started hearing the cries of the mare and the colt again. They got louder and sounded to be more painful... As I fell, there was a sudden change. The darkness turned into what seemed to be an organic surface, with muscles, veins and others. I still couldn't see the end of the pit... Celestia knew how long I would fall and listen to the ear torturing screams of the ponies in pain... Suddenly, as I fell down, large pieces of metal just made their way into the pit, by emerging violently from the flesh walls, throwing waves of blood around, making my fall much more nastier than it already was. These pieces of metal that looked like pipes stopped as soon as they hit the other side, and they weren't just pipes, they had cables attached to them, and also energy emitted from them. Bursts of electricity blew from them as soon as they reached they breached the wall in front of them, but, luckily I didn't seem to be affected by it. I fell through the small gaps between them and the organic walls. When I thought that couldn't get more bizarre, I suddenly fell on a soft, slimy flesh ground. I got up covered in blood, wiped the red liquid off my eyes and I saw myself somewhere worse...I was in some sort of hell... I could see Christingham burning to a crisp, while right down at the end of the road, near the exit, I could see a giant head like mine with no eyes, with it's mouth opening and various other "me"s entering it... I was pushed by somepony, I look behind myself, and I see the same image I saw in the mirror. The deformed me. It started to push me forwards until I started walking to my giant head... When I got in, I could see where everypony was going. They were leaping to their deaths in a pit of fire in my throat... When I was the one next to jump in, I tried to take a look where the pit would go, but, I was pushed in by the Skyblack behind me... I fell into the pit, feeling my coat burn and melt as I went deeper down, until everything cut itself to black... I couldn't feel myself. I couldn't move. The overwhelming pain was over. Suddenly, a stallion just form itself in front of me from the smoke...He looked exactly like me, but with no deformations... "Oh, hi new me!" He exclamates, "You look...Kind of burned..." I couldn't respond... "Anyways, I am the Skyblack from the old...Uh...Let's say old, old story. The truly original one! The one before that cold, emotionless and wannabe badass!" The fuck was he talking about? "Well, I'm here to make a deal with you. How about I take your role in this story you're telling? Oh, come on, the fans are going to love if I take the wheel now! They love me!" ... "...You can't reply, right? That sucks...Eh, okay then, I'll go back to my room and have my fun with Fluttershy, you stay there like if you had an accident while having a BBQ or something. See ya!" He vanished... I stood there for hell knows long...I couldn't move or do anything at all... Is this how death feels like? ...Then it sucks. "Sir, Project B.R.E.A.T.H is almost complete. He should be up in fifteen minutes or so!" I heard a random male say. The last words echoed in the dark... "Good...Good..." I heard another stallion say, "Just make sure to not take any longer than that..." "Yes, sir!" Suddenly, I felt something move in my right eye, like if something grabbed it and started spinning it in deeper down like a drill... And then, a red light took care of my vision...And I woke up... --- I woke up inside a cell, one way more cramped than the one in the sanatorium. I had no memory. I looked around the small cell with only one eye, but, with only one eye, as I couldn't feel my right eye. In fact, the entire right side of my head was just numb. I got up, balancing myself and knocked on the steel door. "HEY!" I yelled, and then, got weirded out by my own voice. It wasn't the same anymore. It was much more hoarse, deep and somewhat...synthetic. I cleaned my throat...It hurted, making me cough and choke. I put my hoof on my throat as I coughed and noticed something different. I didn't feel my coat. I felt something more metallic... I started following the metal, moving my hoof around my face. It was all just felt like hard metal. Moving it around, I hit something that felt like two cables right next to my right eye. It caused a numb pain around that area, and also a quick headache... I was more than confused... "Oy!" I heard three bangs on my door, "You're awake?" A small door located a few meters up in the door opened, revealing two crimson eyes staring at me... The small door closed as the eyes shifted. I heard a keyring shake as the door was unlocked and opened. The door opened and I see a gray stallion with a brown mane, wearing a surgical mask and a white lab coat. He carried something in his hooves. He brought it up as he stood on his hind legs and pressed the big and only red button in it... I felt an electrical discharge run through my body, disabling and making my muscles contract as I fell into the ground incapacitated. I felt two hooves grab each of my front legs and drag me out of it and into an elevator... I felt we descended two floors. The doors opening, and I'm dragged out again. On the way, I saw things in which you'd have to see to believe. Many, many ponies working on various things. From big and unknown weapons to a giant robot thing with two machine guns attached to it's arms. I saw worse as we descended some stairs. I saw stuff from outer space. Ponies having a dark and different kind of surgery. I could stallions with their legs cut off and what seemed like robotic legs right next to them, mares with their chest torn open by giant and heavy surgical machinery coming straight from the roof... However, what disturbed me the most, is what I saw when we reached our destination. As my "draggers" opened a secured door, I could see through a glass panel, a stallion strapped onto a wall, begging for his life as a giant laser gun descended from the roof, started spinning as electrical bolts came out of it's canon, before shooting a straight beam of light into the poor one, who was turned into nothing but blood stew. I swear, one of his gibs even hit the window separating me from the test chamber where he was killed. After seeing such horror, I heard the door in front of us opening and me being dragged in... I was pulled up and then forced to sit down on a red dentist like chair. I could see blood around it. I wasn't calm... Two hoops suddenly caught my hooves, one from each side of the chair, and then, my right front leg was pulled a little more far ahead from me, extending it. "Doctor," I saw a mare say into the walkie-talkie strapped onto her vest, "B.R.E.A.T.H is ready for surgery. Over." Both the mare and stallion that dragged me into this left the room, taking one last glimpse at me as the door closed. The room was cramped. It's walls were white, and everything in it was a door not very far away from my right. Above me, I could see machines turned off... I never felt so uneasy in my entire life... Suddenly, the same door to my right opens, and the same stallion who electrocuted me walked in. He had a pair of goggles on his eyes now... "Hello, my son. Today, you're about to take one step closer to the future!" "Who are you?" "Me? Oh, I am Doctor Moonpainter! Red Heat Scientist and medic!" Suddenly, memories flashed into my mind. The Red Heat guys shooting at me as I let out my last breath...It was all more clear... I also remembered Redflower and Gray... "You...You fuckers destroyed my goddamn town!" "Yes, we did..." "AND KILLED THE ONLY PONIES I CARED FOR!" I leaned forwards. "Yes...we did..." I was about to yell more, but, my now robotic voice wouldn't let me. It started hurting again... "You should save your voice, son...You'll need it...Well, anyway, I am here to just perform a basic and quick surgery that might hurt, uh, well, a lot." Suddenly, as he stepped forwards to me, a control panel came from a hole in the ground, and a box of glass was formed around me. "Okay, so," He started working with the control panel, "time to extract the right leg..." "Extract the-WHAT?!" I felt chills run down my spine as I heard something descend from above me. A circle descends and stops around me, and with it, I see a claw to my left and a giant hacksaw to my right... The hacksaw's machine turned on. I noticed my right front leg expended... Adrenaline started running through my veins, as sweated fell from my forehead and I got more and more tense as the blade got closer and closer to my right leg... It stopped as soon as it touched it. I looked away...I was glad I looked away... I started to feel my right leg get cut open as the hacksaw started hacking it left and right. The more it progressed the more painfully it got. I started screaming in pain not very much later, as tears came out of my eyes. I could feel my bone be cut open by it going on a high velocity. The pain was so high, that I could just shoot myself before thinking twice at the moment. The sad part is that I had no weapons to use on myself... Suddenly, it stops and I hear the machine go straight up...I looked to what it had done... I couldn't handle it. I took a glimpse of my cut open right leg, leaking blood intensely before looking away again. I heard something come down from the ceiling again... "I made my way to the nerve, now, I have to cut it by moving my blade below it and bringing it up..." I shivered, cried, I couldn't describe the amount of fear I was in... I took a quick glimpse again on my open right leg, I looked inside it to see that long string that looked like some sort of spaghetti pasta. I looked above my arm and saw a small blade of the size of a butterfly knife moving down and going under my nerve. And then, it started to slowly go up, and... When it touched the nerve and kept pushing it up, I let out what must've been the longest and most painful scream in my life. I slowly lost the sense of my right leg as the nerve was slowly damaged and then, it was just cut in half, disconnecting from itself, making me scream even more louder, to the point my throat was getting even more sore than when I yelled with Derpy... I kept screaming, jerking around the chair in pain as I lost touch from my right leg... "Aaaaand, done! Now, to get rid of the leg..." I saw the hacksaw descend again. I looked away as I couldn't take it anymore... Fortunately, since I lost all the touch from my right leg, I didn't have to feel the hacksaw cut off the rest...Not that was going to change much... "DONE!" The doctor shouts in a happy manner minutes later. I look back again...My right leg was totally detached from the rest of my forearm... The hacksaw descended in between the two and scooped it away. The detached leg fell on the ground leaking blood... And then, I heard another thing coming from above. It was a robotic leg. Suddenly, the claw to my left moved to it, grabbed to it and took it to my forearm. I could see a nerve poking out of the robotic leg. The claw closed itself inside of the machine and a smaller claw came out. It grabbed the nerve, dragged the robotic leg closer to my forearm, and then, inserted it through the hole in my forearm, and it obviously hurted... "Step two, the final step! Attach the artificial nerve to the cut nerve and cauterize the legs together!" I couldn't take it anymore...I was going to lose consciense soon... "Don't pass out now!" Suddenly, I feel a pinch to the left of my neck, as a dose of adrenaline injected into my bloodstream... I was awake to feel more... The claw, somehow, was able to connect the long nerve with my nerve inside it. It glued themselves somehow, and came out. The big claw was back, and it pushed the robotic leg into my forearm and went up. Then, I saw two machines with blowtorches strapped to it. They cauterized the coat with the robotic leg, and then, went back up... Suddenly, the touch slowly came back...I could feel the robotic leg now... "And it's done!" The machines went back up and the glass box went with them... I was numb...I never felt so much pain in my entire life... "You look perfect! This new hoof will now allow you to be strong to the point you can break a wall down with a simple punch! Now, come, you have somepony special to meet..." "Fu...you..." "Don't be stubborn now! Believe me, you're going to love to see him again after so many years.." "Wha...t?" The door opened as guards walked in. The hoops freed my hooves... "One step closer to the future, son!" He says as I'm dragged out again. He didn't even had to electrocute me... --- I was dragged to what I imagined to be the center of this base. A door in front of us opened, and a stallion pulled me up. He threw me into a small round office and ordered me to keep walking as he followed behind. The office had no walls but glass panels, allowing vision from the corridors outside. I could see ponies working on even more foreign machinery as I walked through. Suddenly, as I'm getting to the end of the small office, I feel something pop out from the side of my head, and I start feeling an immense headache. My ears are raped by static. A loud, buzzing, static noise killing my ear drums as my head gets hot and feels like it's going to explode. And then, somepony grabbed whatever came off and popped it back in. I could hear him say "Damn, these cables..." I felt a hoof on my head. I grabbed it and threw it off, and looked up to see... ... "Remember me, Skyboy? Jackie, right? Yep!" I was frozen in time. I was shocked. I was dumbfolded. The now older black stallion with a brown mane and beard stood in front of me. He had bionic modifications on him, like if he was a cyborg. It was him. It was Jack. The one who I considered my true father... "Jack...Jack..." I looked at him from up to down, he wore a Red Heat uniform and in his nametag displayed 'Leader Jack Goodfellow' "JACK, WHAT THE FUCK?!" "I knew you'd have that reaction..." "YOU BAS-" I tried to put my hooves on him, he pushed me away. "Sky, don't make me do this now..." He pulls out a small handle with a trigger on it... Dumb me, I tried to run torwards him, but I was interrupted by my vision strobing quickly into white, disorienting me and hurting my only eye, burning it. I screamed in pain as I kneeled and brought my hooves to my face, grunting in pain... Suddenly, it stops... "Sky, don't embarass me..." I got up, slowly, shaking my pain off... "Why...Jack, why? Why did you join them?!" "I joined the Red Heat sooner than you've expected. 'In fact, I was here before you even got to know me..." "..." "Sky, I was going to introduce you to the Red Heat if you hadn't left me to travel to Ponyville. We would be able to take over Ponyville and maybe the whole Equestria side by side! Imagine us!" "You've betrayed me, Jack...You're working with the ponies who MADE MY FATHER MURDER MY MOTHER!" "I know...Sky...I know..." He sighed, "I...Actually, I...I ordered that operation." "YOU WHAT?!" "Well, uh...Your father was also a member of the Red Heat and, uh...Me and him planned to take your mother down and make you a Red Heat member as well, but...It didn't, quite work and...Here we are." I never felt so dumb in my entire life...Backstabbed by my foalhood friend was just...Just... I can't describe it...My life...It was over...This time, for real. I had nothing else left now... Nothing else... I felt a tear run down my muzzle... "Sky...I am sorry that all of this happened...I wanted you working with us but, now...I'll have to force you to work with us..." "Over...my...dea-" I was hit with the strobing vision again. "Sky, accept your fate. You can't run from the future. This is your new life now. And this..." He points behind me, to the heavy gear, and then, to me "THIS...Is just one more step closer to the future of Equestria." I looked to the left while shaking my head in disbelief, I saw my reflection. I got up and walked to it... The right side of my head...Replaced with technology from outer space. My new eye was red and made of steel with cables coming from the back of my head to it, and things such as my jaw, my ears, and the entirety of the right side of my head we're all transformed into metal... "Sky," I hear Jack behind me, "you're not Skyblack Graymane anymore...You are the first project B.R.E.A.T.H. Which stands for "Bionic Reanimated Entity Armed and Trained to Honour". "That's...the best you guys could come up with?" "We are not creative, Sky-I mean...Breath." "My new name is Breath?" "Yep..." "My Celestia..." "Oh, I forgot something! Turn around!" I did so, and he pulls out of his pocket a tazer like device. "Whoa, you're going to taze me?" "No, but this might sting a little..." He put the tazer, or whatever it was, on my bionic eye and I felt a small taze. Suddenly, I saw my vision start to go red and words start to show up in it... "Whoa, whoa, whoa, what the hell is this?!" "This is your new eye, Breath. The R.H.A.V.S! Red Heat Advanced Vision System!" "Oh good, like if one crappy acronym isn't enough..." "Oh quit being a bitch. You're going to love this thing! It can do various thing as knowing the state of a weapon to knowing a pony's psychological state!" "...Cool." Sarcasm is my third name. I looked to Jack with it. A small text screen showed up showing his mood. It was on green, as happy. I could also see the heat inside his body. "Okay, cool, now how do I turn it off?" "Like this." He pressed a button very close to my eye. I had my normal vision back. "Whenever you want to use it, press that." "Alright..." "Also, in combat, you can use the R.H.A.V.S to target enemies. Better yet, the R.H.A.V.S can inject a dose of adrenaline in your blood flow that can slow down the time for you." I nodded. "Oh, now, before I send you back to your cell, I want to show you one last thing...Follow me." He started making his way out of the round office, I followed him... Outside, the ponies dragging me also started following me again... --- I was taken inside some kind of cave. In here, apart from the rocky walls, there still was marks of ponies being here. Lamps illuminated our path to wherever we were going. I see a wooden door. "You'll be amazed by what's behind this door..." Jack opened it and allowed me to walk in first with the guards behind me. I could see a table with candles around it and a candle on top of it... On that table was also a book... I stopped to examinate the area around me, but I was pushed by the guards torwards the book... I walked to it. It was a black book with no writing whatsoever in it's cover. "Breath, I suppose you already know you're a holder, right?" "I was told I was..." "Well...You should've believed Celestia and her elements," Jack opened the book on it's first page, "this book is the book with the powers that a Holder can learn..." I didn't believe him until I looked to it's first page. There was an other language written there, but, I could understand it... "This book contains all the spells and powers a Holder can hold on his hooves. If you understand the language written in this book, you are a Holder. Please, proceed..." I repeated... Jack opened the book on it's fifth page, "You don't need to read the rest, it's already what you know about Holders..." "Were you ponies stalking me?" "Since you've left Christingham, we've been watching you. Disguised, hidden and every other sorts of way..." I looked back at the book...I started reading what seemed to be a spell for me to learn. When I finished the page, I noticed something odd in the page...It started glowing, and then... I saw two strings of something black hit me and enter my chest, sending me backwards as they penetrated my chest fastly. The strings stopped coming after three seconds. I fell sitting on the ground... I could see Jack smiling at next to the book... I looked down and to my surprise, there were no holes in me. I looked intact... I got up and walked back to the book... "What the hell was that?" "It was your brand new power..." I, suddenly, felt something different in me. My chest made a numb pain that moved to the palm of my hooves. I got on my hind legs and stared at them... "Put strenght in your hooves and be surprised..." I did. I moved some of my strenght into them...Suddenly, fire just blew itself from them, and when I looked back, they were flaming... Oddly enough, I didn't enter a state of panic, and neither I felt pain...It all seemed so normal... I threw my right hoof forwards, extending it, while putting force into it... Fire spread from my hooves as I moved it around. When I stopped, small fire burned itself on the rocks. Good thing the cave hasn't been reconstructed with wood... But...I was shocked...Grief and regretment slowly rised in me as I noticed that Celestia was correct...The Red Heat case was true, the Holder thing was true... They were saying the truth and I didn't believe them... I doomed them... I doomed an entire town...Maybe the entire Equestria... "Yes, my boy, you should've sided with Celestia...They were correct...They wanted your good...They offered you a chance to redeem yourself! A chance for you to become a hero and fight evil along with them! But, you refused. You didn't believe them...You hurted them...You killed one of them and made another one blind of one eye, and worse...You traumatized them...They lost all of their hope in saving Ponyville, and all because of you...You failed, Graymane...And now, accept your failure and live on...'You'll never have a normal life now..." I shivered on his words... "Now, get back here and read this entire book. You aren't getting out of here until you've learned everything. My ponies will take care of you..." He started walking torwards the exit, "...Have fun." He let his guards enter as he closed the door. I leaned torwards the table, putting my hooves on my head and, well, I had nothing else to do but read the entire thing and be struck by those magic black strings each page I read... "These things...They don't hurt me at all, I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm fine, I'm learning cool new stuff, I am fine, I am fine...fine...I am okay...lonely but okay...suicidal but okay...sad but okay...I am fine...I am fine...I am...fine...I'm....I'm...I'm not fine...I'm not fine...I'm sad...sad and suicidal..." Episode 6. ---- Written by Jacket Mike. Content available under the CC-BY-NC license. Category:Reboot